VM-Aware » Backups

NetApp SnapManager VI 2.0 Released

Paul Shannon — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:17:28 +0000

NetApp have finally released the latest and greatest version of their SnapManager for VI product.

An essential addition to any infrastructure running both VMware & NetApp it allows guaranteed crash consistent versions of Virtual Machines to be replicated to secondary sights.

New functionality and enhancements include:

Singe file restore (SFR)
A single wizard for creating manual and scheduled backup jobs
New backup job options:
- The ability to include independent disks
- The ability to exclude specified datastores
- The ability to trigger prebackup or postbackup scripts per backup job (the scripts must be in the server/scripts folder on the SMVI server before you can select them in the SnapManager 2.0 for Virtual Infrastructure user interface)
An advanced find option to search for specific backup jobs:
- Most recent backup (default)
- Backups within a specified time period
- Backups that include VMware snapshots
New restore granularity option (besides SFR):
- VMDKs

So a lot going on here and certainly worth the wait. You can grab a copy now from the NOW site.

VI3.5 Backups

Paul Shannon — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:19:28 +0000

Edward L. Haletky has put together a rather comprehensive overview document of backups in a VMware virtualised environment that can be found here on vmprofessional.

It covers everything from the speed of the backups to level of compression gained using the following tools:

VCB (Included with VMware ESX)
Vizioncore vRanger (~

Vizioncore vReplicator Presentation PDF

Paul Shannon — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 22:03:50 +0000

I stumbled across a new feature overview of what was esxReplicator, but is now called vReplicator:

Replicator_Overview – PDF

Replicator_Overview – Doc

There are a number of very cool new features, that make it an even more salable product than it was before, including:

Failover testing – a single click DR scenario testing function
Manual failover – gives the end user the power to failover or not depending on the invocation scenario
Reporting – Finally there is some decent reporting in Replicator
DB Backend – as part of the reporting overhaul a cool SQL Server driven back end has been incorporated
Free space alerts – this monitors how much space is available on the destination SAN and alerts when thresholds are breached.

This is a product that is definitely viable in all sorts of low cost installations, where serious storage virtualisation is either not an option or not necessary.

PlateSpin

Paul Shannon — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:55:51 +0000

Everybody is well aware that PlateSpin makes some great products (PowerRecon, PowerConvert), but it sometimes seems difficult to justify the costs against free VMware alternatives (Capacity Planner, VMware Converter).

However, all it takes is a 15 minute demonstration of their products and it becomes immediately obvious why the money should be spent.

PowerRecon not only looks better and is significantly more intuitive, it has a plethora of in-built reports that takes the sting out of creating a capacity planning related document. It will email notifications to administrators if data collection stops working on particular machine(s) so that at no point will lots of data be lost. It works with practically all the Operating Systems that you could wish for, but most importantly it works with all the supported Operating Systems under VMware ESX Server. It also hosts all the data collected within a Postgre or SQL server database that is hosted on-site at the customer, another very compelling reason to use it.

Having spoken to a few of their engineers, they all relate that they can complete a full document in under 1/2 a day. This, I’m sure anybody that uses Capacity Planner will agree, is a significant improvement in itself.

There is also seamless integration into PowerConvert, which unlike VMware converter can fully customise the resultant Virtual Machine, before it is created. Features include SID regeneration, service customisation, disaster recovery option.

Again another demonstration of this product is essential to see why it is worth selling as a service over VMware Converter.

esXpress Backup Software

Paul Shannon — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:44:29 +0000

esXpress is not a new product to the market. I remember using this in the early days of ESX 2.5 and liking the product, but hating the interface.

Don’t get me wrong everything in the Linux based console worked and did everything that you wanted it to do, you just didn’t want anyone to come along and play, unless they knew exactly what they were doing.

However, they now have essentially created a virtual appliance and it runs within its own enclosed VM. I have always been a firm fan of backup specific machines, so this seemed ideal straight away.

After a short demo I realised that they have finally got rid of the old console demons and created a very advanced GUI. There are way too many options presented in this GUI, but at least everything is grouped together sensibly.

It has Virtual Infrastructure client integration and looks very easy to use. For screenshots click here.

Acronis

Paul Shannon — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 06:01:10 +0000

I got talking to an Alliance Representative at Acronis today and I mentioned that I use their software at home. He seemed quite pleased that he had met someone that had first hand experience of their software.

They seem to be looking for ways into the Virtualisation market and are looking to seriously compete with the likes of DoubleTake and Vizioncore.

Acronis is a great product that makes images of full machines, whether they be physical or virtual. They now have a format that appears to be supported by VMware’s converter so importing any point in time images is now a seamless process. The beauty of Acronis is that it has all the functionality of Symantec Backup Exec Recovery, but at a fraction of the cost. Click here for product overview and here for costings.

They are currently actively recruiting channel partners, so I gave him my card and we’ll see if we can add them to our portfolio of Virtualisation related partners.